英文演讲我们该选择死亡吗?

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英文演讲我们该选择死亡吗?
SHALL WE CHOOSE DEATH?
Bertrand Russell
December 30, 1954
I am speaking not as a Briton, not as a European, not
as a member of a western democracy, but as a human being,
a member of the species Man, whose continued existence is
in doubt. The world is full of conflicts: Jews and Arabs;
Indians and Pakistanis; white men and Negroes in Africa;
and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic
struggle between communism and anticommunism.
Almost everybody who is politically conscious has
strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but I
want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings for the
moment and consider yourself only as a member of a
biological species which has had a remarkable history and
whose disappearance none of us can desire. I shall try to
say no single word which should appeal to one group
rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and,
if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may
collectively avert it. We have to learn to think in a new
way. We have to learn to ask ourselves not what steps can
be taken to give military victory to whatever group we
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prefer, for there no longer are such steps. The question
we have to ask ourselves is: What steps can be taken to
prevent a military contest of which the issue must be
disastrous to all sides?
The general public, and even many men in positions of
authority, have not realized what would be involved in a
war with hydrogen bombs. The general public still thinks
in terms of the obliteration of cities. It is understood
that the new bombs are more powerful than the old and
that, while one atomic bomb could obliterate Hiroshima,
one hydrogen bomb could obliterate the largest cities
such as London, New York, and Moscow. No doubt in a
hydrogen-bomb war great cities would be obliterated. But
this is one of the minor disasters that would have to be
faced. If everybody in London, New York, and Moscow were
exterminated, the world might, in the course of a few
centuries, recover from the blow. But we now know,
especially since the Bikini test, that hydrogen bombs can
gradually spread destruction over a much wider area than
had been supposed. It is stated on very good authority
that a bomb can now be manufactured which will be 25,000
times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima. Such
a bomb, if exploded near the ground or under water, sends
radioactive particles into the upper air. They sink
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gradually and reach the surface of the earth in the form
of a deadly dust or rain. It was this dust which infected
the Japanese fishermen and their catch of fish although
they were outside what American experts believed to be
the danger zone. No one knows how widely such lethal
radioactive particles might be diffused, but the best
authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with
hydrogen bombs is quite likely to put an end to the human
race. It is feared that if many hydrogen bombs are used
there will be universal death - sudden only for a
fortunate minority, but for the majority a slow torture
of disease and disintegration...
Here, then, is the problem which I present to you,
stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end
to the human race1 or shall mankind renounce war? People
will not face this alternative because it is so difficult
to abolish war. The abolition of war will demand
distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what
perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than
anything else is that the term 'mankind' feels vague and
abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the
danger is to themselves and their children and their
grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended
humanity' And so they hope that perhaps war may be
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英文演讲我们该选择死亡吗?SHALLWECHOOSEDEATH?BertrandRussellDecember30,1954IamspeakingnotasaBriton,notasaEuropean,notasamemberofawesterndemocracy,butasahumanbeing,amemberofthespeciesMan,whosecontinuedexistenceisindoubt.Theworldisfullofconflicts:JewsandArabs;IndiansandPakistanis;whitemenandNegroesinAfrica;and,ove...

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